How Loud The River
by Tiara of Sapphires
Summary: Ben and Rey are in the middle of nowhere and Rey wants to swim. The only issue is: she doesn't know how. Ben fixes that.
**My buddy Juulna requested this prompt which I will water down to this: "Kylo/Ben teaches Rey how to swim. Bonus points for a kiss."**

 **This was a lot longer and angstier than I had planned.**

 **Un-beta'ed so if there are mistakes, well, oops.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters. This is just for my own (twisted) amusement and not for profit.**

She heard it before she saw it.

At first, Rey thought she was hallucinating, the heat and exhaustion beginning to get to her head, making her hear and see things that were not really there.

At first, she thought it was just the blood rushing in her ears. But this sound was so intense and constant that it could not be coming from her. Reaching out with the Force told her that it was not some animal making the noise. But how could something not living make that noise?

"What is that?" she asked, half to herself and half to Ben, who trudged along the overgrown path a couple paces ahead of her.

He turned back, confusion on his face. "What is what?"

"The roaring sound! What is that?"

To his credit, Ben did not stare at her like he thought she was an idiot.

"We are probably near the river. It is on the map."

Rey clapped her hands together, suddenly invigorated. "I want to see it!"

They had been hiking for hours, looking for a lost temple and a lost Jedi holocron, both of which clearly deciding to stay lost. They were sweaty and tired, even relying on the Force for strength was becoming less and less helpful.

"Please?" she insisted when Ben hesitated.

Whatever ill-advised mission they had to could be set aside for a few minutes.

"If we get lost because of this, I am blaming you."

Rey rolled her eyes. They both knew that they were just going east from where they were heading and that they would only get lost if they actually put effort into getting lost.

It was a short deviation from the path, the sound of the river growing louder as the dirt and trees thinned to stone and scraggly shrubs.

Rey had to hold in a gasp when the river came into view.

The water was moving with a roaring intensity, white and frothing and writhing. She had never seen anything like it: water moving with such force. The glittering lakes she had seen during her travels were so stagnant in comparison to this.

"Can we go in it?" she asked, eyes transfixed.

"Are you crazy? We would drown if we went down there," Ben scoffed.

Rey knew that he was right. The speed and strength of the water was not to be underestimated. And yet something inside her sank.

"Oh," Rey whispered.

She flinched as Ben started at her obvious disappointment.

"Come on, we'll find somewhere the water is less rough, then we can make camp."

He started down the river's edge, following the flow of the water. Rey did not move for a moment, staring at his back, listening to that wonderfully hypnotizing sound of rushing water.

"It's too wide for us to cross anyway," Ben called out, voice almost drowned out by the roar.

Rey blinked, snapping back into the present. And she followed behind him.

…

Ben was true to his word. The river slowly opened up until finally it emptied into a large lake.

They dropped their packs by a shady tree, both grateful to be relieved of their burden after miles of hiking.

"I don't sense anything that could eat us in there, so it should be safe to swim in," Ben mused.

Rey tried not to watch too avidly as he stripped out of his shirt. She hoped that he did not see her cheeks flare as she tried to avoid looking at his back and his chest and his face and…him in general.

He pulled off his shoes and pants, revealing a pair of shorts, before he all but sprinted towards the lake. Rey gaped at his sudden enthusiasm that seemed to rival hers and looked down at her clothes, none of which could be taken off without exposing herself to Ben.

"I guess I have to go it like this," she breathed as she removed her own shoes and slowly padded into the water.

She had seen lakes before, on Takodana and on D'Qar. They looked so glittering and peaceful from afar, just like the one she was ankles-deep in now. The water was cold, a blessing after hiking for hours and hours in a humid forest.

She was supposed to enjoy this. As someone who lived most of her life in a desert, she should have been enjoying the very fact that she was standing in more water than had ever passed her lips in her entire life. It was relief from the long hike and the beating sun.

But standing in it… She immediately regretted her naïve childishness.

Rey had her experiences with 'freshers, being able to bathe in as much water as she wanted. But that was a controlled situation. She could not die in one of those.

She could still see the bottom where she was standing, silt and pebbles around her feet. Where Ben was swimming, the water just below the tops of his shoulders, she could not see the bottom, an unknown murkiness where his body disappeared.

The urge to pull Ben out and the urge to run away, back to the safety of the shore, paralyzed her.

"What is it?" he called out.

She grit her teeth, staring at the little lapping waves. It was _water_ , it was not going to hurt her. Rey took a few more steps forward, until her feet were entirely concealed.

It was cold and it felt good, but she could not shake the uneasiness that clung to her mind. Her reflection stared back at her, the image fractured and feverish.

"Rey, you okay?"

The ground seemed to tilt on its axis, leaving Rey reeling. She was going to fall in, darkness covering her head, filling her lungs.

"Rey!"

She blinked, suddenly noticing that Ben was closing the space between them, that she was digging her nails into her palms, that her body was shaking.

They kept out of each other's minds, after spending more than enough time using this 'Force-bond' as a weapon, a way to tear and break. But she could feel Ben brush against her mind, trying to find the source of her discomfort, his concern palpable. She kept her mental walls high, not giving him an inch.

"He does not need to see" Rey thought as she backed away from him, water sloshing from their movements.

"I'm fine," she croaked, inwardly kicking herself for how entirely _not_ -fine she sounded.

Ben opened his mouth, probably to echo her thoughts.

"I don't know how to swim," Rey explained shortly, cutting him off. She clenched her jaw as soon as the words left her mouth.

Anger and shame at her own weakness closed around her throat, as unreasonable as it was.

How could she know how to swim? It was not like she had ample opportunity to learn such a thing on a desert planet like Jakku.

She remembered when she first heard of the activity.

Several traders had stopped into Niima Outpost, telling stories of the planets they had been to.

"They have entire tubs full of clean water!" one of the men had reported, his hands flailing. "And they don't even drink from it! It is all to swim in!"

Rey spoke up from where she was listening, curiosity getting the best of her, "Swim? What is that?"

The man turned to her, something akin to pity in his eyes as he looked at the dirty child.

"It's like flying through the water, kid."

The idea of it was almost inconceivable to Rey at the time, the biggest collection of water she had ever seen was the watering hole for the pack animals and who in their right mind would go in _that_?

But that night on Jakku she dreamt of flying through an endless expanse of cold blue, temporarily replacing the murky dreams of a family destined to return to her. Rey did not give much thought about it after that. It was an impossible fantasy and fantasies were often quashed in the unforgiving desert. She had her family to wait for.

That had been years ago, before she discovered and embraced her gifts. The idea of swimming seemed so frivolous and meaningless next to the Force. At least, that was how she tried to justify it.

Muttering something about setting up shelter, Rey turned and walked back to the little clearing where their packs sat.

The water clinging to her skin felt like a corrosive, eating away at her.

She was not getting back in there, if she had anything to say about it.

…

Rey was quiet well after the sun had set, staring into the campfire. Even though Ben could not look into her head, she knew that he could feel her emotions coming off her in waves as he sat across from her.

All she had to hope was that he did not bring it up.

"Do you want me to teach you?" Ben asked, breaking the silence.

Rey's head snapped up at the words.

"What?" she asked.

Ben rolled his eyes, exasperated. "Do you want me to teach you how to swim?"

Rey bristled, her hand tightening around her ration pack so she did not throw it at his head. Of course he would bring it up again, being condescending about it. She was such an idiot for bringing up the river in the first place.

"What makes you think I want to learn how to swim?" she spat, trying to recover what little dignity she had left.

If Ben was offended, he did not show it, rather he schooled his features to something that resembled concern. "You were so excited to go into the water. But when you did…"

Rey cringed and Ben shut his mouth, words unsaid passing between them. Neither of them needed to recount what had happened.

"Why would you want to teach me, Ben?" Rey asked softly.

"Because I can think of only a handful of times that I have seen you that afraid. I don't want to see that again, if I can help it," he replied, eyes widening as soon as the words left his lips, like he did not mean to say that.

It was his turn to stare at the ground, something like a flush high on his cheeks. Rey could only stare at him with wide eyes.

"Oh," she whispered, inaudible over the crackling of the fire.

What could she possibly say to that?

Neither of them said anything for several minutes until Rey sighed and rubbed her face with her hands.

"So you want to teach me how to swim," she grumbled, words muffled.

He exhaled through his nose, clearly fed up with Rey already, not willing to dignify her words with a response.

"Fine," Rey said. "Tomorrow."

This was going to be a disaster.

…

"The water is freezing, Ben!" Rey squawked, unable to stand letting the water get passed the tops of her feet.

Of course, he wanted to start teaching her at the crack of dawn. "Before the sun roasts us alive", he said.

"Stop whining and get in. It is better if you just get in and get it over with quickly."

Rey only grumbled, contemplating kicking some water at his face. But that would only get him annoyed and who knew what he would do as retribution for something like that.

"Do you trust me?" he asked, not a trace of teasing in his eyes.

Rey froze, feeling very childish. Force, when he said it like that.

"Of course I trust you, Ben."

She flinched, less out of fear and more out of the chill the water brought, as she stepped closer towards him. The water lapped mid-thigh now. She felt better than she did the day before, but even then this was not turning out to be a pleasant experience.

"I don't like this," she whined.

Before she could react, he grabbed her arm and dragged her towards him, backing up so the both of them were chest-deep in water.

" _Ben_!" she screeched, clinging onto him as her skin prickled.

Ben laughed, still holding onto her, relishing in her discomfort. Until it stopped and they only stared at each other, neither of them sure what to do.

Rey blushed and pushed off of him, her feet able to touch the lakebed. The water was still freezing, but getting more tolerable by the moment.

"See? Not so bad," Ben said, clearing his throat.

Rey made a face, making it clear that she was not happy with being manhandled into the iciness of the lake water.

And they were in deep, deeper than Rey was yesterday.

Panic welled up again and it must have been evident because Ben stepped closer to her.

"Rey, it's okay. There is nothing to be afraid of. I am not going to let anything happen to you."

She straightened and put on her brave face.

"S—so. What are we going to do first?" she asked, trying to exude bravado that she really did not feel.

"First, I am going to teach you how to float."

He maneuvered himself behind her, grabbing her upper arms. Rey blushed at his proximity.

"Now, fall backwards and let your legs float to the surface."

One leg up. And then the other. Rey supposed it was like laying on a bed, her body parallel to the water's surface.

Apparently not, as Ben moved so his hand planted firmly in the middle of her back, holding her up as he instructed how her body should be positioned.

It was a simple matter, arching her back, keeping her arms out as floatation. She did not like the idea of the water covering her ears as most of her head, except her face, was submerged in the water. Everything was strangely muted and echoic. She could hear her own heartbeat more clearly underwater than she could before.

She tried to focus on the feeling of the water supporting her, getting the technique down, committing it to memory, and not Ben's large hand splayed against her back and the expression on his face that she really did not want to decipher at the moment.

She was floating, albeit with Ben's help, but she was floating. It was a strangely wonderful sensation, the near weightlessness. It was peaceful.

"Let's see if you can float on your own," Ben said as his hand left her back and he stepped away. Immediately, Rey tipped to the side, her head submerged in the water. She surfaced in a flurry, sputtered, scrambling to get her feet underneath her body again.

"I wasn't ready, you asshole!" she yelled, wiping water out of her eyes.

She saw Ben stifling a laugh and she bristled. Of course he would make fun of her. Why was she not surprised?

"You know what? I am going to float without your help," she said, making some space between the two of them.

It took a few false starts and a few mouthfuls of lake water before she could begin to balance herself on the surface of the water.

She was good at balancing on narrow spots when she was a scavenger. How could this be much different?

Two more tries of losing her balance and studiously ignoring Ben as he watched her when suddenly it clicked.

Arms outstretched, back arched, belly up, lower legs kicking slightly, head straight.

She was doing it. All by herself. She was not entirely inept when it came to stuff like this.

She allowed her weight to favor her legs and she unsteadily got back to her feet.

"See? I did it!" she said, turning back towards her unlikely teacher.

There was a beat as Ben stared at her, and suddenly he was in her personal space, his hands on her face, anchoring her. Rey stood shocked for a moment, her breathing quickened not by pride but by something else.

"What are you doing?" Rey asked, wincing as the light changed in Ben's eyes, cursing herself as he started to pull away.

Adding to the impulsive decisions she had made since the beginning of this trek, she closed the space he was trying to make and mashed her lips against his.

It was clumsy and awkward for the first couple of seconds, she assumed that most first kisses were inherently awkward. They molded together, finding a rhythm, Ben's hands coming up to wrap around her waist, her hands on his shoulders.

Something told Rey that this was a long time coming.

"Just so you know, this is not getting you out of learning how to swim," he whispered as they broke for air.

"Shut up, Ben," Rey breathed as she kissed him again.

 _ **Fin**_ **.**

 **Aw, cute fluffy things…kinda! Sorry, no sex, but the cold water probably shriveled Ben's penis to the point where it would not be practical. Better luck next time!**

 **I am tiaraofreylos on tumblr so hit me up if you want to chat!**

 **All feedback is loved and appreciated!**

 **Cheers!**

 **~Tiara of Sapphires**


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